Assignment #13

As the semester comes to an end, I have begun to realize how much I have gained from this class. I would have never thought that in my lifetime I would have written over 5,000 words on my own online blog. This just goes to show how technologically advanced our society is becoming. Instead of writing the traditional, boring 10 page paper we have all learned how to be “bloggers” and become part of a new trend.

Coming into this class I knew very little about blogging. The only thing I knew was that anyone could do it, because a couple of my friends occasionally write blogs about sports. I would have never known that blogging could be so easy if I didn’t take this class and I think that if more people knew how easy it was, they would be blogging also. The definition of blog is a website maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events or other material such as graphics or video. Although textual blogs are the most popular, there are several different types of blogs, so I’m sure people wouldn’t have a hard time finding something they are interested in. other than textual there are; artlog (art), photoblog (photographs), sketchblog (portfolio sketches), vlog (videos), MP3 blog (music), podcasting (audio). Just recently my friends started their own online radio show on Blog Talk Radio . They basically talk about nothing important and have people call in and act like morons, but it’s a type of blog, because they have a website with weekly entries of commentary.

Not only have I learned about blogs in this communication class, but in COM 217 we also discussed blogs. We learned how blogs are an important tool in organizations, because companies encourage their employees to blog. I also learned that blogging is a major part of convergence. Blogs are a part of web 2.0 and they just go to show you how all types of technology are coming together. A blog can connect you to videos, pictures, audio clips or songs, and also a blog acts as a social network. Its amazing to think that any person has the capability to connect all of these types of technology and media and put them together in their own way to express their thoughts and what their feelings are on a certain topic.

In the end, I would never regret taking this class. I am going to take away so much from this class and hopefully will never forget what I learned. I feel that I now have the ability to help people understand media and how it affects everyone. I also hope to continue on with my blogging career and start a sports blog where I can express my feelings about current topics and events in the world of sports.

Assignment #12

While watching the channel 7 news, some of the stories that were covered were the Pope visiting the nations capital, the laptop that was stolen from Buff State containing important information, the arrival of FBI agents to the scene of the abduction of the 12 year old girl in North Tonawanda, and channel 7 sports teaming up with Time Warner to offer more exposure for local high school and college sports teams. These were the major stories that were shown on the news. When I picked up the newspaper and looked at the front page, only one of these stories was shown. There was an article about the Pope visiting Washington D.C., but none of the other stories that were addressed on the news were on the front page of the paper. On the front page of the paper there was an article about the presidential debate in Philadelphia, an article about Mexican restaurants being raided in an alien sweep and there was also a picture of the Virginia Tech tribute that was held on Wednesday.

I think that it’s surprising that the stories that are on the front page of the newspaper weren’t the top stories addressed on channel 7’s news broadcast. I would have thought that Channel 7 would cover the topics on the front page then move on to other topics. It seemed to me that the news only covered the smaller topics. Instead of covering the Presidential debate in Philadelphia, they covered smaller stories such as a girl being shot and other things that aren’t unusual to hear on the news. I think that the news should have addressed less of the small topics and more of the large topics. If I watch the news I would rather watch stories on large issues like the Pope and the Presidential debate and the Buff State laptop. There could be more in depth coverage of these topics if they didn’t waste their time on a shooting on the West side. There are shootings everyday in Buffalo, and its no new news to me that they happen, so I don’t think they should get much television exposure. It’s surprising to see that there was no coverage of the presidential candidates on the channel 7 news. As we get closer and closer to knowing whom the presidential candidates will be, you would think the news would have more coverage. I was also surprised to see that there wasn’t anything about Time Warner and Channel 7 news offering exposure for local sports teams. This is important, because many people feel that Buffalo needs to increase the high school sports exposure, because as of right now it is very minimal. The reason why some of these topics aren’t in the paper is that they only print a morning edition, so events that happen in the early morning and day wont get into the paper until the next day.

Assignment #11

One of the most important problems that America is facing today would be the increase in gas prices. This is a major problem, because almost everything we do involves gas. Unless you ride a bike or walk everywhere you use gas in your car. When you want to travel whether it’s on a bus or plane, you are using gas. Everything you buy at the store was shipped to that store by a truck that used highly priced diesel fuel. Everything we do is affected by gas. I work in a restaurant and when we get our food delivered, all of the companies now charge delivery fees because the gas is so high. I came to believe that this is one of the largest problems, because of personal experience and media influence. You can almost bet on turning the news on or reading the newspaper and hearing or seeing something about gas prices, so media definitely plays a large role in this being a problem. I know this from experience, because of my job at the restaurant and seeing that the prices for everything are going up because of the price of gas. I feel I am not that dependent on the media for knowledge of this topic, because without the media I can still see how gas prices are increasing and how everything else is also becoming more expensive.

The second problem that America is facing today would be the War in Iraq. Even though the news coverage on the war has toned down since the start, this war is still a problem. Most of the news about the war is dealing with the presidential election. What president will pull troops out of Iraq and what president will keep the war going. This is a big issue, because people who are against the war will want a president who will end the war no matter what. I think that I have both personal experience and media influence when choosing this topic as one of the major problems facing America. I have two friends in the military and I know that whenever the news does have a story about soldiers dying or missing it makes me nervous. You never know what’s going to happen and one day I could turn the news on or open the paper and see that one of my friends was killed or missing in action. I would have to say I am very dependent on the media for this topic, because without the news I know nothing about the War in Iraq and the media is where I get all of my information on the topic.

The third problem that America is facing today would be our economy. This problem has been brought to my attention only by the media. Every time I watch the news a new corporation is going bankrupt or our country is digging deeper and deeper into debt. I know in my other communication class we have learned about the recent news of Bear Stearns. This just shows how we are in debt, because bear Stearns tried to invest in people’s debt which is very risky and obviously they failed. The media is the only place I receive information about the economy, besides my COM 217 class, so I would say I am very dependent on the media for knowledge on this topic.

Assignment #10

I believe that email has certainly improved people’s ability to communicate and receive information.  It has never made me believe it wasn’t fast and reliable. The only way I see it not being fast is if someone chooses not to respond for several days after receiving your email, but when you send it, it gets there rather quickly. The only way I see it not being reliable is if you give somebody the incorrect email address or accidentally type it wrong. I like to keep certain emails separate from others, so that is why I have two different email accounts. I use the UB email account for school related emails and also for emails from my bank. These emails I update more frequently, because they are more important. I also have a Yahoo! Email account. This account is for the junk emails and for my accounts with Apple, Buffalo Bills and other stuff. Keeping all of my emails separate improves my ability to receive information, because if they were all together, there could be a better chance that I miss an email and accidentally delete it.

I think that there are many ways that email improves people’s ability to communicate. For instance if somebody has a speech problem or a heavy accent an email would be a better way to communicate, because there is no evidence of a speech problem or accent when you are communicating non verbally. Also, if you are communicating with someone who speaks a different language you could type your email and put it through an online translator, this way you can send them your email in their language and also when you receive theirs you can translate it into your language. This would make it easier, because instead of trying to understand what they are trying to say you can clearly read it in your own language. If you were speaking to each other on the telephone or face to face, you would not be able to use a language translator.

Negative aspects of email would be that you don’t get to enhance your face to face communication skills and also grammar skills. When you are writing emails, you tend to use slang and abbreviated words. This could affect your grammar when writing something that is important. Also, you are not truly interacting with the person you are communicating with. By not seeing the person and talking face to face, you don’t see facial expressions and you cannot tell if the person is using sarcasm or not. I have had many unnecessary arguments over instant messaging, because I was being sarcastic and people took me seriously. When you are using email you cannot hear the person’s voice and the tones they are using, so you do not know how to react to what they say.

Assignment #9

In a way I would say that yes I am a gamer. I’m not the kind of person who subscribes to gaming magazines and logs on to gaming sites to read the latest news, but I play my Xbox 360 and if I’m bored I play BrickBuster on my cell phone. Maybe in some people’s eyes I’m not a gamer, but I see a non-gamer as somebody who doesn’t use any form of electronic gaming.
I would say that I don’t necessarily fit the mold, because I am not an avid gamer. I only play my Xbox 360 occasionally and when I do play I am not playing for hours on end. I typically play sports games and once in a while I’ll play a War/Shooting game. I think that if I was an avid gamer I would have more of a selection with the games I would play and I would certainly play them more often, but I don’t have the time and I choose not to, because I believe there are more important things to be doing.
My favorite type of game would have to be the EA Sports NCAA Football and Madden NFL Football. Seeing that football is my favorite sport it is fitting that my favorite video games would involve football. Every year I buy the latest version, NCAA first then NFL. I like to play both of these, because to me it’s fun. I like playing with UB and the Buffalo Bills, because they are my favorite teams and I like to see how well I can do with playing with them. I also enjoy playing EA Sports NCAA March Madness, because next to football, college basketball is my other favorite sport. Occasionally I will play war related games, because I feel they are more challenging and I like to see if I can beat them, but other than that I like to stick to the football and basketball games.
When I play my games, I notice that for the college football there is product placement, but I feel that without it, the game wouldn’t seem as realistic. There are some places in the game where there are fake ads and to me it looks stupid, because they had to make up an ad to put on the game inside the stadium. I think that real ads make the game look better. The spikes the players use have Nike and Adidas logos on them and the football and jerseys have logos on them too. These things do not go unnoticed, because I am not even looking for them and I see them. I know in real life hockey there are ads on the boards and if a video game didn’t have them it would look kind of ridiculous. Advertisements are all over, so why wouldn’t they be in video games too? I think that the ratings system is a good idea, because it allows parents to see what a game consists of. I just don’t understand why everybody makes a big deal about it. If a parent has a problem with a video game then they should just not allow their child to play it. The video game companies can produce whatever video games they want. If there is a demand for violent video games then that’s what they are going to produce, because they want to make money. If these parents would just keep an eye on their child and restrict what games they play then it shouldn’t bother them. I believe they are just games, but at the same time I like them to be more realistic. I like seeing the ads in games, because that’s how it is in real life. I do not think I spend too much time gaming, because I know that there are more important things to be doing. I like to play when I have nothing else to do and when I want to play. I only play occasionally, so I don’t feel I spend all of my time playing games.

Assignment #8

For my blog this week I chose to watch the internet series called Art of the Drink. This is a series about bartending and making different drinks. Every week the bartender introduces a new drink and he makes it once going through each step then he has his female assistant make the same drink again. I chose this because I occasionally bartend at HSBC Arena and I thought it would be helpful for work and also for leisure.
Compared to normal television I think that it is very similar. Because this is a show that teaches you how to make drinks, I compared it to a show on the Food network where they teach you a new meal and go through the steps of how to make it. The only thing that would be different between the two types of shows would be length. For this bartending show, the episodes were only about ten minutes long where some food shows are a half hour to an hour long. When I went to the site and tried to watch the videos, I learned that I needed to subscribe to the Art of the Drink podcast, so instead I searched for it on YouTube and right away tons of episodes came up. So, it wasn’t very hard to find and if you don’t feel like downloading the podcast for your iPod, you can just go to YouTube and watch the episodes. I feel that this series can be very interactive, if you have all of these liquors and juices and the other supplies at hand, you can make the drink along with the show, so you can actually make it while learning from the show. I think that this type of series is more enjoyable than some television series, because you learn something that you want to learn and not some nonsense that you will never use in your life. If you intend on being a bartender or enjoy making new types of mixed drinks, this is a good series to watch.
The Quarterlife TV launch on NBC was extremely unsuccessful. The series only lasted one episode, because of the poor ratings it received after its premier. It received lower ratings for teen demographic and general household than the democratic presidential debate did on MSNBC. After being cancelled on NBC they decided to air the remaining episodes on Bravo. It also aired on the E! channel in Canada and due to its poor ratings, the E! website in Canada removed all reference of the show off of their website since it was cancelled.

Assignment #7

In the past twenty-four hours music has definitely played a role in my interactions with other people. I know that whenever I hear a song that I know the words to, I always have to sing it. I work at HSBC Arena for the Sabres games, so last night during the intermissions and timeouts when they played a song that I know, I would sing it. When my friends at work hear the song and hear me singing they also start singing and we have fun and it makes us get through the night. When I am driving down the street and I can hear someone else’s music and bass, that really bothers me. I am not impressed by how sweet someone’s system sounds, I could care less actually. Yesterday I was in my car with my windows up, window defrosters on and my stereo on and I could still hear someone else’s music. It makes me mad that I can’t enjoy my music without the interruption of someone else. Usually I listen to my iPod in my car, but my car was being fixed yesterday, so I was using my dad’s car and didn’t have access to listening to my iPod and only had the radio. This made me aggravated while driving to school and work, because with my iPod I can listen to whatever song I want to, but with the radio I have no choice. Whenever I hear a song I don’t like I have to change the station and sometimes there are commercials and I can’t hear any music. These rides would have been much more enjoyable is I would’ve been able to listen to my iPod. Also, whenever I hear certain songs, they might remind me of an event that took place in my life where that song was played or something I watched where I heard that song. Whenever I hear the song Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond, I think of the movie Fever Pitch and whenever I hear the song Shipping Up to Boston by Dropkick Murphy’s, I think of the movie The Departed and when the Sabres have a power play at home Sabres games. I think that music definitely influences my mood. If I just got done listening to a depressing song, I probably don’t feel as happy as I would if I listened to a more upbeat song. When I played sports in high school, I always played music before games to pump me up and get me in the mood. Without my music I wasn’t as excited to play as I was when I listened to my pre-game playlist.